:: Deepquest ::

If you use Gmail, you have something to be excited about today, because you can finally have new email messages pushed directly to your iPhone when they arrive.

To understand why push services have not been available before, let’s first discuss what exactly push is. When a client (be it a mail program, Twitter client, or web browser) needs to notify a user when new content or information is available, it has to periodically connect to the server and check for changesThis is the way email clients have worked for years: the client checks with the server at a defined interval (usually every 5-15 minutes), downloads any new messages, and notifies the user that new mail has arrived. Many other services, such as RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, and even the Gmail website work the same way; they just check the server more often, which gives the appearance of real-time notifications. 

Other services, such as instant messaging clients, maintain a constant, active connection to the server at all times. When new information is available for the client, the server sends, or “pushes” the information directly to the client as soon as it is available. In corporate environments, mail services such as Microsoft Exchange have paved the way for push email, by having the mail client (usually Outlook, Entourage, or other clients that support Exchange) maintain an active connection to the mail server, which allows the server to notify the client immediately when new mail arrives. 

Read on to find out how Gmail push works, and what you need to know to get it set up on your phone.

How to Setup:

1. Google Sync is only supported on iPhone OS versions 3.0 and above. You can check your current version by going to Settings > General > About > Version. To upgrade, follow the instructions at http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/. Please upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0 before setting up Google Sync.

2. Perform a sync with iTunes to ensure that Contacts and Calendars from your iPhone are backed up to your computer.

Getting Started

1. Open the Settings application on your device’s home screen.
2. Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account….
4. Select Microsoft Exchange.
5. In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address. If you use an @googlemail.com address, you may see an “Unable to verify certificate” warning when you proceed to the next step.
6. Leave the Domain field blank.
7. Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
8. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
9. Tap Next at the top of your screen.
9a. Choose Accept if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
10. A new Server field will appear. Enter m.google.com.
11. Press Next at the top of your screen again.

For some reasons at this time only 1 MS exchange can be setup.

more details from TUAW

Screenshots